Got a text from my bro that Brian Goble aka Wimpy/Sunny Boy Roy left us Sunday, only 57 years on his ride. Bummed.
Way back in Jan/Feb 1980, my bro came home from a road trip with my pop to Calgary. He went to a mall there, trying to find a record store. There was a group there doing an in store he had never heard of: Pointed Sticks. They suggested he buy some stuff, including the Disco Sucks ep by DOA, and the first Subhumans 12". which the original version of Fuck You on it.
Punk rock changed my life.
I was 11 when I heard this stuff, had just started playing guitar the previous fall. Those 2 discs, along with the Lies 45 by Pointed Sticks (lovingly autographed by Roy's late brother Dimwit) became another obsession for my dorky pre-teenage self. The power, the clarity, the lack of anything remotely merch about it - loved it. I heard Canadian punk before I heard the Pistols or the Clash or the Ramones - it's in my blood.
The Subhumans always resonated strongly with me, sort of that bridge between punk and hardcore. Incorrect Thoughts is still an album I play all the time.
Roy of course went on to provide the bottom in DOA, when they started morphing into hard rock. I saw those lineups about a dozen times in the 80s, every show better than the last. One of the best shows I've ever seen was on the DOA/No Means No tour (87?): No Means No came out, did 40 minutes, Seth Card hopped on drums, John Wright hopped on vocals and they did the Hanson Brothers for 10 minutes. Then a hammered Roy came on, stepped to the mike, and they went into Subhumans mode, Firing Squad and Sickoids.
I lost my shit. There was about a dozen of us in front, Kelly Simpson, Toogood, the Boddy bros from Euthanasia, and we all just lost it - we all just missed the Subhumans, and this was as close as we were gonna get. Roy brushed the sweat off his brow and it hit me: I felt baptized.
Eventually, when Gerry Hannah got out of jail and his life straightened out, the SubHumans reformed. I think they played here once, and I heard about it months later. Always disappointed in that.
I remember reading once that Roy said he started the Subhumans to get away from his shitty warehouse job. Working my shitty warehouse job today, all I could think was, man, that was a ride.
Rest in beer, bro.
Way back in Jan/Feb 1980, my bro came home from a road trip with my pop to Calgary. He went to a mall there, trying to find a record store. There was a group there doing an in store he had never heard of: Pointed Sticks. They suggested he buy some stuff, including the Disco Sucks ep by DOA, and the first Subhumans 12". which the original version of Fuck You on it.
Punk rock changed my life.
I was 11 when I heard this stuff, had just started playing guitar the previous fall. Those 2 discs, along with the Lies 45 by Pointed Sticks (lovingly autographed by Roy's late brother Dimwit) became another obsession for my dorky pre-teenage self. The power, the clarity, the lack of anything remotely merch about it - loved it. I heard Canadian punk before I heard the Pistols or the Clash or the Ramones - it's in my blood.
The Subhumans always resonated strongly with me, sort of that bridge between punk and hardcore. Incorrect Thoughts is still an album I play all the time.
Roy of course went on to provide the bottom in DOA, when they started morphing into hard rock. I saw those lineups about a dozen times in the 80s, every show better than the last. One of the best shows I've ever seen was on the DOA/No Means No tour (87?): No Means No came out, did 40 minutes, Seth Card hopped on drums, John Wright hopped on vocals and they did the Hanson Brothers for 10 minutes. Then a hammered Roy came on, stepped to the mike, and they went into Subhumans mode, Firing Squad and Sickoids.
I lost my shit. There was about a dozen of us in front, Kelly Simpson, Toogood, the Boddy bros from Euthanasia, and we all just lost it - we all just missed the Subhumans, and this was as close as we were gonna get. Roy brushed the sweat off his brow and it hit me: I felt baptized.
Eventually, when Gerry Hannah got out of jail and his life straightened out, the SubHumans reformed. I think they played here once, and I heard about it months later. Always disappointed in that.
I remember reading once that Roy said he started the Subhumans to get away from his shitty warehouse job. Working my shitty warehouse job today, all I could think was, man, that was a ride.
Rest in beer, bro.
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